[At-Large] Opera now lets you ditch boring web links and use emojis instead

[bzs at theworld.com]

On February 21, 2022 at 01:32 at-large at atlarge-lists.icann.org (Evan Leibovitch via At-Large) wrote:
 > On Sun, Feb 20, 2022 at 11:36 PM Karl Auerbach via At-Large <
 > at-large at atlarge-lists.icann.org> wrote:
 > 
 > 
 >     [...] the domain name system is slowly fading from the public eye; that we
 >     are moving into a world in which DNS names are becoming more a part of the
 >     hidden machinery of the net (like MAC addresses) and that higher level
 >     naming abstractions, things like Twitter names or Facebook handles, are
 >     becoming the more prevalent forms of naming on the net.
 > 
 > 
 > You're right of course, but there's a whole industry of self-proclaimed
 > branding experts holding inventories of "memorable" domain names that prays
 > you're not. It's a very burstable bubble.

As I've said for decades: Notice that WIPO, USPTO, et al don't allow
you to just register and squat on interesting strings. Or have rules
which make that a useless endeavor ("use it or lose it", etc.)

That's not due to a lack of imagination. They saw the problem 200+
years ago (I made that number up, but a long time ago.)

 > 
 > But it's not just social media handles and emojis that threaten. In parts of
 > Asia and elsewhere, the PITA of non-Latin strings have been widely bypassed in
 > favour of QR codes pointing to "illegible" domains. That's where the real
 > Universal Acceptance lies.
 > 
 >     I also am of the belief that on the net attributes are often more important
 >     than names.  For instance, if I am looking to buy some machine screws I
 >     care more about the attribute "hardware store" than any particular name of
 >     such a store.
 > 
 > 
 > Arguably search engines meet much of this need already. One could and should
 > have realized that "memorable" domain names were on the way down once browser
 > makers merged the search and URL entry fields. From then on, typing <mumble>
 > would almost always yield a more satisfying result than specifying <mumble.com>
 > or for that matter <mumble.anything>. The commoditization of common words and
 > especially category names, driven by an ever-growing mining of TLDs under
 > ICANN, has just sped the process of turning people towards search and away from
 > normal domain names.

How do you put this 'search' on printed advertisements?

It's been tried but is likely to send potential customers to your
competitors unless your product is very unique.

Even "search for our trademarked brand name" has become almost
valueless because search engines recognize brand names and broaden the
search to the product category. For example a particular smart phone
brand is likely to net results for many different phones.

Worse, many brand names are generic words.

Even worse, the search terms go to the highest bidder. Type 'apple' or
'galaxy' into a search box and you will probably have to scroll many
pages down before you run into anything about the fruit or astronomy.

Ok, "worse", is a value judgement...works for the marketeers!

The point is it's not either/or, all this is operating simultaneously.

 > 
 > Cheers,
 > 
 > Evan
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-- 
        -Barry Shein

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